My next new-ish car is probably going to be a 2004 Jetta wagon TDI, (don't care for the new grille deal), set up w/ GTI wheels and suspension, tint the greenhouse, etc... Tyson and I have talked about one of those cars being a great daily driver/ DE car, total momentum car but w/ respectable torque, especially chipped. If you chip them and put bigger injectors on, you can easily bump them 100 HP and they get even better mileage!! It's the funniest thing, but you make a diesel more powerful and you can drive it at under 2k rpm all the time if you want in traffic.

The fuel savings over driving a 15 mpg premium unleaded car will make the entire monthly payment on the car if you drive ~1500 miles a month. Let's see; drive my *****box or use the gas $$ for an almost new car? Hmmm......;)

What diesels are NOT Direct Injection?

Direct injection is a fairly new thing, Glenn. Not sure how new, but I'm gonna say ~10 years. Before that, all diesels had a "pre-chamber" type combustion chamber where the fuel was injected. Unfortunately I don't know more than that, (probably get it from howstuffworks.com), but it really took diesel performance and efficiency to the next level.

Of course there were non-direct or IDI turbo diesels like the 5 cylinder MBs of the '80s that were still great motors, but the new ones are rockets in comparison *liter for liter*. :cool:

Yeah, I think that Direct injection has been around a pretty long time. I remember learning about them as a kid, in the late 70's (Diesel VW Rabbits) I remember wondering why a gas engine wouldn't also have direct injection.

Certainly, whether it has a pre-combustion chamber or not, Diesels require very high pressure, in cylinder injection . . .where I'm guessing that the pre-combustion chamber came along later, as an improvement to the burn. (?)

I'm also thinking that VW started tagging their engines "TDI" when they added electronic control of the injection pump. . . .maybe it was with just the addition of the turbo. (? . . I can't remember.) But either way, it just reeks of marketing spin.

I've been lusting after a TDI Golf for years but the wife has laid down the law: No VWs in the family. Why? Hell if I know.

same here, been wanting one of these as soon as they came out, but talk about sticker shock! It's too bad they made it for one year only...probably cuz nobody wanted to spend $60K on a VW...

My parents have a '04 Golf TDi (which I convinced them to buy) and it sure is a fun car to drive. A friend of mine used to have a '04 Jetta TDi wagon 5 spd, which he told me he gets 50mpg regularly...on biodiesel. A lot mpg than my bike too...but not as fun ;)

Actually, no, prior to the Powerstroke Ford's V-8 diesel was IDI, or indirect injection. That was up until the early '90s. And VW put a turbo diesel in the Jetta that was IDI, same time. (Early '90s).

My wife has a Renault Clio 1.5Dci.
1.5 Turbo diesel engine kicks out 85 hp.
About town it averages 55mpg but at motorway speeds (approx 75 mph) it kicks out 65mpg.

If it direct injection or common rail injection that has improved diesels dramatically the past few years? The latest Cummins engine has common rail. It is crazy quiet and makes a lot more power than the last engine.

The latest common rail injection systems fitted to modern diesels runs at approx 2000 bar (29000psi) requiring a 3 stage pump to get to that pressure - the technology involved is pretty clever to say the least.

it needs to have more than 7500 miles on it ...that is it. simple, really. in NY state, you cannot buy a new one, but you just buy it in NJ instead.

speeder...they had them in 05 and are selling them still in 06...05 was VERY limited, but they have 06's now ...with ass kicking saleds incentives. I have driven one and it is without doubt the best SUV ever

thanks. i craiglisted all over and found the used ones are just has speeder says, high priced! i think the TDI is the way to go. diesel is a few pennies higher than 91 octane, but what the heck. i live a hop and a skip from berkeley, they sell bio stuff there. i just have to promise to hug a tree on the way out. if they made a two seater that bought me time in the carpool lane and it would be a homerun. grand slammer. oh well.

do TDI cars get smog checked?

Yep, VW diesels were IDI until 96/97 depending on where you bought them. the last generation of vw IDI diesels were the 1.9 turbo diesels (AAZ engine code)... they were never sold in the states but are quite popular engines for Vanagon conversons. Pretty good engine (that's what's in my car) but not as refined as the TDIs.
To clarify about B100 biodiesel. It's not 100% vegetable oil, it's 100% biodiesel. Running 100% unmodified vegetable oil requires a two tank conversion.

Second tank in the trunk:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1145631202.jpg


Covered, still tons of trunk space:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1145631230.jpg

I like the design and driving characteristics of VWs but my 99 Jetta TDI was junk. I spent $1500 in six months on wiring harness, glow plugs, and mass air flow sensor. The interior was falling apart when I sold it. I was so glad to see it go becuase the fuel savings couldn't outweight the unplanned repair costs. I would be hard-pressed to buy another Mexico-built VW.
My $0.02.
Troy

Me too. My current VW has been very unreliable. I try to be forgiving, considering it does have over 200k, but equivalent Hondas or Toyotas just don't seem to have the same issues. Problem is I'm stuck on diesels, and the only other cars on the market are Mercedes. That means my "fun car" money would get tied up in my "day to day" car.

Okay, help me out here. I remember the early VW Diesel bunnies with injectors in the sparkplug holes, of what appeared to be a typical (gas) head design.
. .Yet there was room in that space for a pre-combustion chamber?

Yep... remember, the head doesn't have a cumbustion chamber... it's flat right across the bottom so that gives it some room for a precumbustion chamber. Let me dig out a picture...